part_of adult midgut epithelial lining adult midgut spent digestive cell During blood feeding, these enormously enlarged, fully differentiated digestive cells fill with hematin. They protrude as flask-shaped cells. Many detach from the basal lamina and float free in the lumen, eventually discharging their waste contents intothe cavity for elimination during defecation. In other cases, the enlarged, terminal end of the cell fragments and floats into thelumen. In some cases, the cells remain intact but the hematin-rich residual bodies that fill their cytoplasm are eliminated byexocytosis. Fig. 9-24, in Biology of Ticks ISBN:0-19-505910-7. TADS:0000571 TADS:0000571 default_namespace cell